THE AMBONESE CONNECTION

Lou Casch, Johnny O'Keefe and the Development of Australian Rock and Roll

Abstract

The opening articles in this issue address themes previously explored in Perfect Beat v2n3 'Traffic' - which examined the complexity of cultural flows between the Western Pacific region and the North Atlantic axis of Western culture. In the case of Casch, the movement was from Indonesia to Australia (as the nearest periphery of Western culture). In particular, it analyses how Casch's part in the local history of rock and roll has been 'whited out'; and again emphasises the manner in which the fertile, diverse and inventive music culture of the pre-independent Dutch East Indies was uniquely positioned to respond to the globalisation of Western rock and roll in the 1950s.